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The Richest Women in America in One Graphic

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Richest Women in America 23 Nov 2021

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The Richest Women in America in One Graphic

The majority of the world’s billionaires hail from the United States.

But of the 724 American billionaires whose net worths are tracked daily by Forbes, only 86 are women. That’s just 12% of the country’s billionaires.

This visualization examines the select few who have made the cut into this prestigious list, using data compiled from Forbes’ real-time billionaires list.

Note: All data is as of November 1, 2021 unless otherwise stated.

Top 10 Richest Women in America

Since 2020, MacKenzie Scott has donated over $8.5 billion and counting of her wealth. Yet, she still remains one of the richest women in the world. This is largely due to the Amazon shares that she received in her divorce settlement.

Amazon’s stock performance soared amid the pandemic, which resulted in the initial value of her shares ($38.3 billion) nearly doubling.

Top 10 overallNameNet WorthAgeSource of wealth
#1Alice Walton$68.1 B72Walmart
#2MacKenzie Scott$56.1 B51Amazon
#3Julia Koch & family$52.2 B59Koch Industries
#4Jacqueline Mars$31.5 B82Candy, pet food
#5Miriam Adelson$29.2 B76Casinos
#6Abigail Johnson$26.2 B59Money management
#7Laurene Powell Jobs & family$16.7 B57Apple, Disney
#8Diane Hendricks$11.7 B74Roofing
#9Ann Walton Kroenke$9.3 B72Walmart
#10Blair Parry-Okeden$8.8 B71Media, automotive

Miriam Adelson inherited her late husband’s 57% stake (worth ~$19 billion) in Las Vegas Sands, making her one of the richest newcomers to the Forbes list. The casinos have locations across Las Vegas, Singapore, and Macao.

Several of the women in this top 10 list also share membership with some of the richest families in America—from the Walmart Waltons, to the Johnsons at the helm of Fidelity Investments and Fidelity International.

The Oldest Richest Women in America

The oldest female billionaire in the world, Alice Schwartz, is 95 years old. She co-founded Bio-Rad Laboratories with her husband, which operates in the life sciences research and clinical diagnostics markets. They started the company in 1952 with only $720 in the bank.

OldestNameNet WorthAgeSource of wealth
#1Alice Schwartz$3.0 B95Biotech
#2Wilma Tisch$1.4 B94Diversified
#3Doris Fisher$2.8 B90Gap
#4Johnelle Hunt$4.7 B89Trucking
#5Marian Ilitch$4.4 B88Little Caesars
#6Pauline MacMillan Keinath$8.5 B87Cargill
#7Margot Birmingham Perot$4.2 B87Computer services, real estate
#8Martha Ingram & family$3.9 B86Book distribution, transportation
#9Janice McNair$4.2 B85Energy, sports
#10Norma Lerner$1.1 B85Banking

After her husband’s passing in 2018, Janice McNair (aged 85) took over his 80% stake in the NFL team Houston Texans, which ranks highly as one of the world’s most valuable sports teams. This also subsequently catapulted her position as being among the wealthiest sports owners in the country.

The Youngest Richest Women in America

In the online dating era, Whitney Wolfe Herd has made a name for herself. The female-first dating app she co-founded, Bumble, grew into a formidable competitor for her former employer, Match Group (which owns Tinder and OkCupid, among others).

At age 31, Wolfe Herd became the youngest self-made female CEO in the country after Bumble’s $2.2 billion IPO in February 2021.

YoungestNameNet WorthAgeSource of wealth
#1Whitney Wolfe Herd$1.2 B32Dating app
#2Rihanna$1.7 B33Cosmetics, music
#3Neha Narkhede$1.4 B37Software
#4Lynsi Snyder$4.2 B39In-N-Out Burger
#5Kim Kardashian West$1.2 B41Cosmetics, reality TV
#6Jane Lauder$6.7 B48Estée Lauder
#7Amy Wyss$2.0 B50Medical equipment
#8Sara Blakely$1.2 B50Spanx
#9MacKenzie Scott$56.1 B51Amazon
#10Aerin Lauder$4.2 B51Cosmetics

Wearing many hats from influencer to entrepreneur, socialite Kim Kardashian West’s cosmetics and fashion companies (KKW Beauty and shapewear line Skims) have catapulted her to a newfound billionaire status. She has a set of diverse revenue streams, from reality TV royalties to blue-chip and real estate investments.

Top 20 Self-Made Richest Women in America

The self-made label is an additional fascinating avenue to explore. Forbes defines this category as people who establish a fortune independently, rather than partly or wholly through inheritance.

One of the newest entrants into this mix is Rihanna. She already enjoyed significant success as an entertainer, with her claim to fame being one of the best-selling artists of the 2010s. However, it was her entrepreneurial spirit that put her on the Forbes list in August 2021. Rihanna owns 50% of her cosmetics company, Fenty Beauty. The other half is run by Bernard Arnault, who is among the world’s top billionaires.

Here is the rest of the top 20 self-made richest women in America:

Self-MadeNameNet WorthAgeSource of wealth
#1Diane Hendricks$11.7 B74Roofing
#2Judy Faulkner$6.5 B77Health IT
#3Meg Whitman$6.3 B65eBay
#4Judy Love$5.2 B84Retail and gas stations
#5Marian Ilitch$4.4 B88Little Caesars
#6Johnelle Hunt$4.1 B89Trucking
#7Thai Lee$4.1 B62IT Provider
#8Lynda Resnick$4.0 B78Agriculture
#9Gail Miller$3.2 B77Car dealerships
#10Doris Fisher$2.8 B90Gap
#11Alice Schwartz$3.0 B95Biotech
#12Oprah Winfrey$2.7 B67Media
#13Elaine Wynn$2.2 B79Casinos, hotels
#14Peggy Cherng$2.0 B73Fast food (Panda Express)
#15Sheryl Sandberg$1.9 B51Facebook
#16Rihanna$1.7 B33Cosmetics, music
#17Jayshree Ullal$1.7 B60Computer networking
#18Safra Catz$1.6 B59Software
#19Jenny Just$1.5 B53Fintech
#20Eren Ozmen$1.4 B62Aerospace

Source: Forbes, as of Aug 2021 (latest available)

For those paying attention to the rapid rise of the fintech industry, Jenny Just’s entry on this list will come as no surprise. Her firm, Apex Fintech Solutions powers the trading technology behind companies like SoFi and eToro. In fact, she has started or bought 15 businesses in the space in just 24 years.

As the richest women in America continue to make great strides, this list could look very different in coming years.

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Wealth

Mapped: Where Do the Wealthiest People in the World Live?

There are over 600,000 individuals worldwide with a net worth surpassing $30 million, representing the wealthiest people on the planet. Here’s where they live.

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A cropped map of the world showing where the wealthiest people live in 2024.

Where Do the Wealthiest People in the World Live?

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Investors didn’t expect 2023 to be the bumper year for returns it ended up being. Despite tightening monetary policies and surging bond yields, equities continued their strong performance (helped hugely by enthusiasm around the potential of artificial intelligence).

This has boosted wealth creation, and the growth of ultra high net worth individuals (UHNWIs) in the world.

We map out where the 600,000+ UHNWIs reside, as of the end 2023. To be categorized as such, a person’s net worth needs to be higher than $30 million. This map uses data from the Knight Frank Wealth Report 2024.

It’s worth noting that some countries that are known hotspots for the wealthy—including Belgium, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Russia—do not have specified numbers in the source report and have not been covered in this map and article.

Ranked: Countries By Number of Ultra Wealthy Individuals

At the top of the ranks, accounting for more than one-third of the wealthiest in the world, the U.S. is home to 225,000 UHNWIs, more than double the number of 99,000 UHNWIs in China.

Together, the world’s two largest economies are home to 50% of the world’s wealthiest.

RankTerritoryUHNWI
Population
YoY Growth% of World
UHNWIs
1🇺🇸 U.S.225,077+7.9%35.9%
2🇨🇳 China98,551+3.3%15.7%
3🇩🇪 Germany29,021+1.1%4.6%
4🇨🇦 Canada27,928+2.0%4.5%
5🇫🇷 France24,941+0.2%4.0%
6🇬🇧 UK23,072+3.1%3.7%
7🇯🇵 Japan21,710+0.3%3.5%
8🇮🇹 Italy15,952+3.8%2.5%
9🇦🇺 Australia15,347+2.9%2.4%
10🇨🇭 Switzerland14,734+5.2%2.4%
11🇮🇳 India13,263+6.1%2.1%
12🇪🇸 Spain10,149+1.7%1.6%
13🇳🇱 Netherlands8,390+0.2%1.3%
14🇹🇼 Taiwan7,640-0.3%1.2%
15🇰🇷 South Korea7,310+5.6%1.2%
16🇭🇰 Hong Kong5,957+2.5%1.0%
17🇸🇬 Singapore4,783+4.0%0.8%
18🇸🇪 Sweden4,125+2.5%0.7%
19🇳🇿 New Zealand2,587+2.9%0.4%
20🇳🇴 Norway2,276+1.1%0.4%
21🇦🇹 Austria2,167+0.3%0.3%
22🇹🇷 Türkiye1,932+9.7%0.3%
23🇮🇪 Ireland1,890+0.4%0.3%
24🇮🇩 Indonesia1,479+4.2%0.2%
25🇫🇮 Finland1,269+4.1%0.2%
26🇹🇭 Thailand889+0.8%0.1%
27🇿🇦 South Africa835-1.3%0.1%
28🇵🇹 Portugal800+3.0%0.1%
29🇲🇾 Malaysia754+4.3%0.1%
30🇻🇳 Vietnam752+2.4%0.1%
N/A🌐 Other51,039+0.1%8.1%
N/A🌍 World626,619+4.2%N/A

Note: The organization uses a dynamic proprietary wealth-sizing model created by their data engineering team to arrive at these figures. Exact numbers may change between different editions of this report.

Ranked third, Germany, has close to 30,000 UHNWIs, following the pattern of the biggest economic powerhouses having the highest share of the wealthy.

This correlation remains generally constant outside the top three as well, even if exact positions aren’t quite maintained:

  • Canada, 10th largest economy, 4th in share of wealthiest people.
  • Australia, 14th largest economy, 9th in wealthiest people.
  • Switzerland, 20th largest economy, 10th in wealthiest people.
  • India, 6th largest economy, 11th in wealthiest people.

Together, these top countries by share of UHNWIs account for 92% of all individuals with a net worth greater than $30 million.

Other countries, not specifically mentioned in the report, have 59,039 UHNWIs, or 8.1% of the world’s total.

Ranked: Regions By Number of Ultra Wealthy Individuals

Unsurprisingly, buoyed by the U.S. and China, North America and Asia are the top two regions by wealthiest individuals.

Europe is close behind Asia however; a reminder of the region’s collective economic might.

RankRegionUHNWI PopulationYoY Growth
1North America253,066+7.2%
2Asia165,442+2.6%
3Europe155,232+1.8%
4Middle East18,790+6.2%
5Oceania17,934+2.9%
6South America13,159-3.6%
7Africa2,996+3.8%

The oil-rich Middle East also outperforms on the wealthy individuals metric and saw the highest YoY growth in the ultra-wealthy after North America.

The world as a whole grew its UHNWI population by 4.2% and only South America saw a contraction in numbers between 2022 and 2023.

Where Does This Data Come From?

Source: Knight Frank Wealth Report 2024.

Note: Some countries that are known hotspots for the wealthy, including Belgium, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Russia have not been specified by the source report, and thus do not appear on this map.

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